Eurozone Refuses Bailout Extension to Greece, Debt Crisis Continues

Eurozone Refuses Bailout Extension to Greece, Debt Crisis Continues

Amidst the growing debt crisis of Greece, Eurozone finance ministers have rejected a request made by Greece in order to extend the bailout program beyond June 30th. A statement by the Eurogroup said that Greece ceased negotiations over a new deal “unilaterally.” Greece is to pay €1.6bn to the IMF on Tuesday, without additional funding, there are fears that Greece may leave the Euro and face economic collapse.

Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis stated that Greece is still trying to secure a bailout deal that could be put to a referendum, stating:

“In these crucial moments, the Greek government is fighting for there to be a last minute deal by Tuesday.”

The Eurogroup head, Jeroen Disjsselbloem stated that it would be up to the ECB to decide on whether or not to continue emergency liquidity funding to Greece’s banking system. Should the funding discontinue, the Greek’s banking system could collapse.

“The process hasn’t ended – it will never end probably”, said Mr Dijsselbloem. “We will continue to work with Greece. Many things could happen – many scenarios are conceivable.”

He blamed Greece for stifling negotiations and progress on the issue stating:

“They broke off their talks while they were still going on, while there was still time.”

“The only positive caveat I see is that the Greek parliament still has to take a wise position on that, and I hope that may lead to a different political situation.”

It is not certain whether or not Greece will leave the Eurozone. In the history of the Eurozone, nothing like this has ever happened. Though Greece made several concessions at the beginning of the week, creditors say that it isn’t enough.

The referendum called by Alexis Tsipras will be very important to the outcome of the crisis, as will the decision of the European Central Bank.